The World's Strangest Frogs

Frogs are amazing little animals. They have been studied for centuries by naturalists and scientists and have taught us a lot about biodiversity, the health of an ecosystem, and even the nature of reproduction. Frogs have been made characters in fairy tales, have played important roles in myths and religions, and sometimes have even hopped into the bedrooms of our children as beloved pets. Its hard not to love the common frogs we see every day, especially with their immense mosquito-eating prowess, but to truly appreciate what a frog really is we should check out just how diverse they really are. Below are some of the strangest frogs ever discovered.

The Desert Rain Frog - YouTube Sensation

The Desert Rain Frog is a strange little critter that lives off the coast of South Africa and Nambia. It probably would have stayed in obscurity if it wasn't for Dean Boshoff, a crane operator, who happened upon the creature while on a camping trip. When the Desert Rain Frog is threatened it puffs its body up as large as it can, stands as high as it can stretch, and emits a strange squeaky-toy like noise. When Boshoff uploaded a video to YouTube and titled it "The World's Cutest Frog" he probably didn't expect much but it went viral and you can see why.... its just that adorable.

World's Cutest Frog Squeaks

The Pinocchio Frog

In 2008 Paul Oliver discovered a new species of frog while he was in Indonesia camping with an international team of biologists. Or perhaps it was the other way around - the frog seemed to have discovered him. It was sitting on a bag of rice watching him when he decided to capture it. The tiny creature was a most unusual specimen with a nose that inflated with air to help it create noise. When the nose was inflated it pointed upwards, when the frog was not making any vocalizations it went back down. Not surprisingly it gained the nickname Pinocchio Frog.

Pinocchio Frog's nose inflates when it sings. Here it is shown quiet as can be.

Glass Frogs

Glass frogs are actually a whole family of frogs that live in trees of the Amazon rain forest. They are partially transparent and when you look at one from below you can see all of their internal organs through their skin. They live in the high canopy of the rain forest where it is almost always cloudy and are active at night. The combination of darkness and clouds makes their invisible skin the best camouflage of all. Scientists are now studying these frogs as an indicator species - a type of animal that can reflect the health of an ecosystem. A lot of frogs means there's a very healthy ecosystem going, a lessening amount of frogs means there is something going wrong. Sadly they are a vulnerable species and show it as their population decreases under environmental stress.

Here you can clearly see the internal organs of a glass frog through its transparent skin.

World's Smallest Frog

The world's smallest frog, Paedophryne amauensis, is also the world's smallest known vertebrate. This means it is even smaller than the smallest fish in the world. It is truly a sight to see - if you can. Scientist had to locate the frog by listening for its calls before bagging up leaf litter where they thought it was coming from. Only by combing through this did they find the little stinker making the noise but it wasn't for long! These charismatic little enigmas had a tendency of disappearing - jumping 30 times their own body length to get away from cameras. Perhaps this is why it was only discovered in 2010 in a New Guinean rain forest. At 7.7mm long one adult frog could literally fit inside an M&M.

At 7.7mm long the world's smallest frog could literally fit inside an M&M.

Surinam Toads- The Ultimate Piggyback Ride

Surinam toads are by their nature a very strange looking animal. They are the world's flattest amphibian and already look like a pancake (or really a dead leaf) but that is not what is so unusual about them. In fact their strangeness comes from the rearing of their children. Most frog moms will lay eggs somewhere they feel is somewhat safe and leave them for nature to take its course. Not the Surinam toad, she's a mom that takes amphibian motherhood to the extreme. You see she carries her eggs with her, under a flap of skin on her back, and allows them to turn first into tadpoles and then into tiny adult toads, still under the skin of her back. Eventually when the babies are mature enough they will emerge through holes in this skin flap and swim off into the wild blue yonder. It's a sight that many people are intensely squeamish of, still I couldn't resist attaching a video. Be comforted in the fact I am sure your birth was no prettier or less gruesome in appearance.

Birth of Surinam Toads

Flying Frogs

I don't know about pigs flying but I do know there are a few adventurous frogs who have taken on the challenge! In fact there are at least 80 species of these arboreal adventurers. These frogs have large webbed feet that they use to glide from tree to tree, usually to get away from predators or to capture dinner. Some of them can glide for more than 50 feet! The Wallace's Flying Frog (also sometimes called a parachute frog) is one of the more known species and lives in Borneo. Below is a video of three different flying frogs taking a leap of faith from the treetops.

Frogs Flying

Beelzebufo - Fossil Frog from Hell

Modern day Pac Man frogs can be bought as pets but they have a reputation for eating whatever they can fit into their enormous mouths. As scary as that sounds they have a 70 million year old ancestor that would have put their apatite to shame. This new discovery called Beelzebufo (devil frog) was 16 inches long and grew over ten pounds in weight. It was vaguely the size of a beach ball. As fond as I am of frogs I think this one would have scared me a bit!

Beelzebufo could have grown large enough to eat small dinosaurs in the day.

Northern Wood Frogs & Suspended Animation

Northern Wood Frogs could be the next cult classic to any sci-fi fan. You see, they hold the key to suspended animation. These frogs do not hibernate during the winter, instead the hide under leaf litter and literally freeze solid. Their heart stops beating, their brain stops making waves, all their internal organs just go kaput. You would not be crazy to think the frog would be dead at that point but its not. When the weather warms up a strange thing happens... the frogs dethaw, their heart starts beating, their brain comes back to life, and within a few hours it is up and hopping. Scientists have some of the mystery solved on how it is able to do this but we're still working on the details. For now the simplest explanation is their blood performs like antifreeze. Below is a four minute mini documentary that explains it far better than I can.

Comments

No HTML is allowed in comments, but URLs will be hyperlinked. Comments are not for promoting your articles or other sites.

sending

AUTHOR

Theophanes Avery

14 months agofrom New England

Yes, it may have been that video that inspired this article. Hard to remember now! Thanks for stopping by and commenting. :)

Mark Spivey

14 months agofrom Australia

A nice collection of frogs! The squeaking desert rain frog video went viral. Perhaps my favourite is the flying frog.

AUTHOR

Theophanes Avery

5 years agofrom New England

I *think* that's actually a mass of eggs rather than intestines, which are likely under that. Looks like they are just about to be laid. The yellow ones might just be developing still. Or I could be completely wrong... but that's my guess anyway. :)

Kathi

5 years agofrom Saugatuck Michigan

Very interesting and informative hub! Thanks for the great photos that truly enrich the subject. The glass frog is really cool as they all are. I can see why they would be vulnerable, his intestines have a brown spot which I wondered about if it was any indication.

AUTHOR

Theophanes Avery

5 years agofrom New England

No problem, thanks for stopping by and commenting. :)

catgypsy

5 years agofrom the South

Love this hub! I have always loved frogs but have never seen such a variety! Thanks for all the interesting information and pictures!

Dimitris Man

5 years ago

Amazing, didn't know all that stuff about frogs. Thank you for the great hub...

AUTHOR

Theophanes Avery

5 years agofrom New England

They are, but isn't everything? ;) Thanks for dropping by!

Martin Kloess

5 years agofrom San Francisco

I think frogs are already strange, Then this! Thank you.

AUTHOR

Theophanes Avery

5 years agofrom New England

Why thank you livewirez. I sure had fun writing it. :)

Romel Tarroza

5 years agofrom Pearl of the Orient Sea

What the Frog! This such a nice hub. I find it interesting reading about frogs. Thanks

AUTHOR

Theophanes Avery

5 years agofrom New England

Why thank you grandmapearl! We have wood frogs here too. I remember catching them as a child. I didn't know then they were magic either but I sort of wish I had! Thanks for stopping by and giving such a lovely comment!

Connie Smith

5 years agofrom Southern Tier New York State

I found myself saying quite often "wow, that's incredible" while reading this amazing article!

The videos are terrific. Loved the Desert Rain Frog, and that teeny tiny frog. We actually have a lot of the Northern Wood Frogs here in our wooded area, but I never knew they froze solid and then reanimated themselves! As long as I've lived, I'm still learning awesome stuff about Nature. Thank you for sharing this terrific piece. I voted Up, Awesome, Useful and Interesting.

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)

Google AdSense Host API

This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Facebook Login

You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Maven

This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)

We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.

Conversion Tracking Pixels

We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.

Statistics

Author Google Analytics

This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)

Comscore

ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)

Amazon Tracking Pixel

Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)